PKP stays off track
PKP's chronic lack of funds for investment is holding back the introduction of a system that would significantly reduce the time spent by trains crossing the border with the former Soviet Union.
The SUW 2000 system, which eliminates the need for trains to have their undercarriages changed when they move to a different gauge of railway, would bring enormous savings of both time and money. Thus by adopting it widely, PKP could expect to see its competitive advantage raised on the lucrative market for freight transport further east.
Anyone who has ever crossed the border with the former USSR by train will remember the enormous waste of time involved in switching from the wider, 1,520-millimetre gauge of its railways, to the narrower, 1,435 millimetres of most of Europe. Passengers crossing the border are obliged to get off the train with their luggage and wait while a special crane lifts the wagons so that the undercarriage can be changed.
"It's terribly frustrating," said one veteran of the Trans-Siberian express. "After six days, you're almost home and you have to stand around waiting all that time."
As for freight trains, goods generally have to be unloaded and loaded again, so that the bogies can be replaced, an operation lasting at least 90 minutes.
The SUW 2000 enables automatic switching from wide to narrow gauge, and vice versa. The system was developed by Polish engineer Ryszard Maria Suwalski, an employee of PKP Cargo. Recently Yvgeny Fadeev, Russia's infrastructure minister, admitted that after 15 years, trials of Talgo, the Russian equivalent of the SUW 2000, had failed. Although a similar system has been developed in Spain, experts consider the SUW 2000 to be the best available in the world.
A key advantage of the SUW 2000 system is that it requires a train merely to slow down, rather than wait for as long as 90 minutes while the entire undercarriage is replaced. Yet no-one at PKP or at the infrastructure ministry appears to have calculated exactly how much money could be saved through the widespread introduction of the system, even though it has been around for more than three years.
"We'll know more in September when a detailed study is completed," said Andrzej Jachnik of the infrastructure ministry.
Janusz Mincewicz, spokesman for PKP Cargo, says the company is expecting to double the volume of freight it transports across the country's eastern border in the near future if the necessary investment is made. He added that the lack of proper facilities is one of the biggest threats to the plans.
Meanwhile, Radosław Żołnierzak, development director of the PKP Group, is convinced the SUW 2000 will help the development of commercial exchange between Poland and the countries of the former Soviet Union. The current level is well below the potential, he said, and the reason for that is partly the incompatibility of the two railway systems.
"The system is very interesting," said Jarosław Pawluk, president of independent rail freight operator Chem Trans Logistic. He said that if his company was to move eastwards, it would certainly consider using the SUW 2000.
But only 10 PKP cars have been fitted with the SUW 2000 system. Although PKP Intercity recently submitted an order for three more cars, and a similar order will be submitted by UZ Ukrainian railways, the problem is the price tag. At zł. 250,000 for a bogie, it is double the regular price.
On top of this there is the cost of installing the stand on the track which the trains pass over to change the wheel alignment. Using the SUW 2000 system, trains don't even have to stop. They can switch tracks on the move, simply by slowing to 30 kilometres an hour. The track gauge-changing stand, set up at the point where the two tracks of different gauges meet, works in conjunction with the train's undercarriage to alter the distance between the wheels.
To date, two lines have been equipped with the SUW 2000 system - the Warsaw-Vilnius express line and the Szczecinek-Kazlu Ruda (Lithuania) freight line. In 2004, a new stand will be set up on the Kraków-Kiev line. In anticipation of this, PKP Intercity, the company operating national and international rail passenger services, has recently ordered the refurbishment of three carriages and their fitting with SUW 2000 bogies. A similar order is expected from Ukrainian railways which, in co-operation with PKP Intercity, will operate on this line.
There is also talk of setting up SUW 2000 stands on other international rail links, such as the Berlin-Warsaw-Minsk-Moscow-Nizhny Nowogrod line and the Riga-Kaliningrad-Gdańsk line, but no decision has yet been taken concerning their future.
ZNTK Poznań is the exclusive producer of SUW 2000 bogies, and it lists its principal potential customers as Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Interest has also been expressed by railway companies in Japan, China and South Korea, which would also benefit from a system that would facilitate transport into and from the former USSR. However, the marketing department at ZNTK Poznań, the train-building plant, admits that no contracts have yet been signed.
Despite the SUW 2000's undoubted potential to save time, there may be other considerations.
"No operator can afford the fact that expensive cars are waiting for hours undergoing procedure from the Russian customs officers," said Henryk Klimkiewicz from the TOR consulting company.
